I apologize in advance for the exceedingly long post.

I have questions regarding a ‘freeze’ type response in a sub. Clinically this is termed ‘tonic immobility’ and is the last of the three human responses to fear (the three being: flight, fight, and freeze). The ‘freeze’ response essentially consists of instantaneous total physical paralysis, accompanied by a decreased blood pressure, and an emotional numbing effect while maintaining complete and sometimes dissociated awareness. Most individuals never experience this response unless they’ve had a lifethreatening experience (like being mauled by a bear … I do hope no one on this forum has ever been mauled by a bear ) where this response is the body’s last ditch effort to stay alive. A very small number of individuals (see somewhat technical explanation below) go straight to the ‘freeze’ response. For these individuals, if suddenly a certain threshold of fear is attained or surpassed, they automatically go into a state of paralysis (paralysis in this context implies the individual could not move of their own volition, but does not mean that others could not move them. Responses depend on the individual, and typically range from ‘freeze as you are’ with no change in visual appearance, to a rag-doll like mobility). In this state, they most often would not be able to make any form of communication, be it a safeword or a physical signal (I doubt even a ‘drop the neon stress ball’ safety mechanism would work unless the individual was certain they would have a complete rag-doll like response.)

My questions is these: If anyone has ever had an experience remotely similar to the above in a bdsm related situation, were you able to devise a way to solve the obvious safety issue for future play (beyond going at a slower pace)? Did you eventually overcome this reaction and if so, how? It would be interesting to hear both sub and Dom/Domme views/ideas on this as well as on any other somewhat atypical responses to fear that have been encountered and how these were handled by both parties.

Avely

[For those interested in the somewhat technical explanation, here is my understanding from the research I've done: the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) controls the flight and fight responses, while the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) controls the freeze response. In the majority of individuals, the PNS will only be activated if the individual perceives themselves to be doomed (aka there was no possibility of fight or flight). However, persons with either a dominant PNS or a latent SNS can transition directly to freeze, skipping the flight and fight responses. Another possibility is the activation of both the SNS and PNS systems at once, which is very much like hitting the accelerator and the break at the same time. This can produce varying degrees of the freeze, flight and fight responses all at once)] … I can’t claim any great knowledge in the fields of biology or psychology, if anyone has a better technical grasp on the phenomena, please feel free elaborate…